I’m guessing that for these to work, the ownership of certificates should end up reflecting who actually had what impact. I can think of two cases where that might not be so.
Regret swapping:
Person A donates $100 to charity X. Person B donates $100 to charity Y.
Five years later they both change their minds about which charity was better. They swap certificates.
So person A ends up owning a certificate for Y, and person B ends up owning a certificate for X, even though neither of them can really be said to have “caused” that particular impact.
Mistrust in certificate system
Foundation F buys impact certificates. It believes that by spending $1 on certificates, it is causing an equivalent amount of good as if it had donated $2 to charity X.
Person A is skeptical of the impact certificate system. She believes that foundation F is only accomplishing $0.50 worth of good with every $1 it spends on certificates (she believes the projects themselves are high value, but that if foundation F didn’t exist then the work would have got done anyway).
Person A has a $100 budget to spend on charity.
Person A borrows $50 from her savings account and donates $150 to charity X. She sells the entire certificate to foundation F for $50 and deposits this back in her savings account.
Why would person A do this? She doesn’t care about certificates, just about maximizing positive impact. As far as she is concerned, she has caused foundation F to give $50 to charity X, where otherwise that money would only have accomplished half as much good.
Why would foundation F do this? It believes in certificates, so as far as F is concerned, it has spent $50 to cause a $150 donation to charity X, where the other certificates it could have bought would only be equivalent to a $100 donation.
I’m guessing that for these to work, the ownership of certificates should end up reflecting who actually had what impact. I can think of two cases where that might not be so.
Regret swapping:
Person A donates $100 to charity X. Person B donates $100 to charity Y.
Five years later they both change their minds about which charity was better. They swap certificates.
So person A ends up owning a certificate for Y, and person B ends up owning a certificate for X, even though neither of them can really be said to have “caused” that particular impact.
Mistrust in certificate system
Foundation F buys impact certificates. It believes that by spending $1 on certificates, it is causing an equivalent amount of good as if it had donated $2 to charity X.
Person A is skeptical of the impact certificate system. She believes that foundation F is only accomplishing $0.50 worth of good with every $1 it spends on certificates (she believes the projects themselves are high value, but that if foundation F didn’t exist then the work would have got done anyway).
Person A has a $100 budget to spend on charity.
Person A borrows $50 from her savings account and donates $150 to charity X. She sells the entire certificate to foundation F for $50 and deposits this back in her savings account.
Why would person A do this? She doesn’t care about certificates, just about maximizing positive impact. As far as she is concerned, she has caused foundation F to give $50 to charity X, where otherwise that money would only have accomplished half as much good.
Why would foundation F do this? It believes in certificates, so as far as F is concerned, it has spent $50 to cause a $150 donation to charity X, where the other certificates it could have bought would only be equivalent to a $100 donation.